ZAGREB, Sept 25 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Wednesday said the cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal means the full cooperation by Croatia and every Croatian citizen with that tribunal.
ZAGREB, Sept 25 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on
Wednesday said the cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes
tribunal means the full cooperation by Croatia and every Croatian
citizen with that tribunal. #L#
"I reiterate: this is about the full cooperation, in every case and
at every time. This is a commitment we have assumed. The world has
the right to expect of us to keep our word we have given," President
Mesic said in his televised address to the nation in connection to
the current situation and an indictment which the ICTY has recently
issued against 83-year-old retired Croatian general Janko
Bobetko.
""In the case of the Bobetko indictment nor has the legitimacy of
the Homeland Defence War's been brought into question nor does this
pose a threat to the Croatian State's existence. I wish to emphasise
this in particular. Namely, extreme political circles, which have
become more vociferous and aggressive lately, are persistently
reiterating the theory that the world, which allegedly does not
want the Croatian State, wishes to destroy its foundations with the
Bobetko indictment," Mesic said.
In order to completely clarify the matter to everybody, I shall add
that the command responsibility means the responsibility of the
person who either has ordered (crimes), or has known of them, and
has not tried to prevent them, either has been advised of them but
has failed to punish their perpetrators," Mesic said.
The Croatian head of state said that this was the criterion used as
the basis for the ongoing trial of the former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Mesic before the ICTY and that he (Mesic) would give his
testimony as a witness in that process, behaving in compliance with
the Croatian Constitutional Law which binds each citizen of the
Republic of Croatia to cooperate with the tribunal.
"If in the concrete case of General Bobetko there is anything I
would object to the Hague-based tribunal, this would be its failure
to utilise an opportunity to speak with the general prior to issuing
the indictment. The tribunal should have absolutely offered such
an opportunity to him. He (Bobetko) should absolutely have been
offered such possibility.
I also cannot accept the formulation from the indictment that
speaks about the conflicts between the Croatian forces and Croatian
Serbs. We know very well that these were conflicts of a part of the
Serb minority, which was incited to rebellion and controlled by
Milosevic, with the Croatian State.
But, if anybody from our authorities knew a few months ago that an
indictment against General Bobetko was being prepared, that we must
send an objection to this address as well, for their failure to ask
immediately the Hague-based tribunal to organise a prior interview
with the army's former chief-of-staff," Mesic said.
The extreme political forces in Croatia, those who experienced the
results of the 2000 elections as their defeat, have readily and
unscrupulously exploited the General Bobetko case in order to
attempt not only to change Croatia's relation with the tribunal but
also to direct Croatia's entire development towards the opposite
trends from the path on which it is currently moving, he said.
Mesic added that the political activities are, of course,
legitimate, but, he warns, it is not legitimate and it must not be
allowed that the country's future be brought into question.
"It is not legitimate and it will not be allowed that mobilisation
happen on an anti-European and anti-democratic platform.
Finally, it is not legitimate and it is out of the question to bring
Croatia into a position of a hostage of anybody's ambitions,
privileges or fear of the truth, i.e. responsibility," he said.
"The Bobetko case has never become and must not ever become the
Croatia case," the head of state said adding that he must clearly
say that there are people who want to use the Bobetko case and turn
it into the case of Croatia.
"We must persist in that Croatia is a law-based state, and that all
the laws are equally applied to everybody and that nobody has or is
allowed to have any privileges regardless of their previous
credits," Mesic said adding that Croatia is once again in the
position when it should decide on its destiny of its own accord.
(hina) ms sp sb